Iris peered into the cold starry night, inhaling the smell of ozone from the lightning storm that had just passed. Atop what she took to be an old grocery store from it's faded signs, an eerie quiet reigned. Alone with her thoughts, she leaned on the ledge of the roof and peered out to the city her people were no longer part of. Once upon a time this city had been a powerful metropolis, an economic booming dwelling for thousands of humans. Now all that remained were roads built for cars that no longer traversed them, old faded billboards selling products that not even the best scavengers could find anymore and stores boarded up as if the occupants were coming back.
They weren't though, she was starting to admit this. It was almost laughable thinking back to those people who thought the war would be over so quickly, that they could just tack some bits of plywood to their businesses, walk away for a few months and then come back as if nothing had happened. As if demons did not chose this millennium to finally show themselves and make their presence known. As if the apocalypse had not finally come to prey on them all.
However much it hurt the rebellion, Iris was finding it harder to convince herself that things were going to get better, that the world could recover after being overrun by the creatures that had destroyed so much of her race. This city had been a beautiful place, if what the older people said was true. It had been a place she would have wanted to live and love and grow old in, but no more.
She couldn't exactly remember what it looked like, since the destruction had occurred when she was little older than four years of age. More details seemed to be forgotten with each passing year, finding it harder to even remember back to a time when humans could still walk above ground. Back before they weren't crouched and hiding like rats in the underground tunnel systems. It was only a matter of time until they too were exterminated, as they had proved to be nothing more than pests to their new rulers.
Iris breathed in the night air, trying to capture the memory of how it felt to be outside, under the dark sky. She shouldn't be here, it was against the rules. Rules that she ordinarily enforced. Rules put in place to protect them, the last remaining people in their city, perhaps in the whole world. It not only exposed herself to the demons lurking out there but everyone else as well.
Lately though, she had found herself getting lax about security, going on more hunts through the city for supplies, slipping out above ground more often, forgetting to sleep when her body needed the rest. Despite this though, Iris did what she could to carry out their message, going through the motions and doing what any good daughter of the leader of the rebellion ought to do.
He was dead though, her father had died trying to protect her. She fingered the dogtags she wore around her neck that had once belonged to her father. He had been ex-military, very protective, the hero they had all needed. More importantly though, he had been her entire world. Five years ago, she lost him in a battle against the demons who had taken over their world.
Only a year later, she lost her boyfriend to another raid. After that, she just stopped caring. The world she had barely known was gone and soon she would be too. Acceptance was the only thing left.
The sound of sirens going off in the distance brought her out of her memories. She listened, making out which direction the danger was coming from and which way it was headed. As she bolted for the ladder attached to the side of the building, Iris muttered a single word mixed with emotions of resigned annoyance and the need to act quickly, "Shit."
Overhead, she could hear helicopters moving towards the building she was scrambling to vacate. The spotlight was passing over a nearby apartment complex that hadn't been used in years, slowly, searching for anything that moved. Using the few precious seconds Iris had before the spotlight came towards her and she was spotted, she held onto the side bars of the ladder and took the rungs three at a time, performing a controlled slide down to the ground.
After landing, Iris started to sneak away, staying as close to the side of the alleyway as possible so as not to be detected by the passing helicopter. Ducking under a balcony, she caught her breath. Despite her own angst, something had finally clicked inside her. The last vestiges of self-preservation convinced her to keep going. There was no way she was going to let these things kill her, no way she was going to let them win.
